Tractor-shovel hydraulic dumping control



March 8, 1949.

R. L. BEYERSTEDT TRACTOR SHOVEL HYDRAULIC DUMPING CONTROL 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 18, 1947 IN V EN TOR.

ifMu

R. L. BEYERSTEDT March 8, 1949.

TRACTOR SHOVEL HYDRAULIC DUMPING CONTROL 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 18, 1947 m m m w.

March 8, 1949. R. L. BEYERSTEDT 2,453,575

TRACTOR SHOVEL HYDRAULIC DUMPING CONTROL Filed Jan. 18, 1947 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 PatentedMor. 8, 1949 TRACTOR-SHOVEL HYDRAULIC DUMPING CONTROL Ralph L. Beyerstedt, Libertyville, 11L, assignor-to The Frank G. Bough Co., Llbertyvllle, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application January 18, 1947, Serial No. 722,938

1 Claim. 1

In tractor-shovels and analogous or comparable appliances the shovel or bucket is frequently mounted on the level on the end portion of a boom horizontally hinged or fulcrumed at its other end on the tractor and supplied with appropriate hydraulic-means for raising and lowering the boom and shovel and its load, the shovel being equipped with releasable lockin or latching means to hold it from turning on its hinge into load-discharging or dumping position until it has been elevated to the desired relation.

One outstanding aim or purpose of the current invention is to provide new and efllcient means to unlatch or unlock the bucket for delivery of its load at any desired position thereof during the raising and lowering cycle with the least amount of manual effort on the part of the operator of the appliance.

in the past, the conventional or usual method has been to operate the cam and lever or other arrangement provided for this purpose with a rod or rope hook-up through the necessary linkage to afford the operator the production of the desired effect.

#In order to enable such operator to unlatch or release the bucket or shovel, it has been necessary for him to pull the rope or the rod manually through a distance determined by the leverage necessary to bring the effort within the limit of the operator's physical ability or capacity.

This, however, usually has had to be a relatively long pull resulting in drawing or displacing the operator out of his normal position, and, therefore, necessarily creating an inemcient condition.

One of the paramount objects of the present invention is, therefore, to overcome these difliculties by a comparatively simple yet satisfactory and effective means and method.

In order that those trained in this art may readily understand the invention and the various advantages and benefits accruing from its employment, a present preferred embodiment of the invention in physical form has been fully illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and is fully explained in detail hereinafter.

In these drawings:

Figure 1 is a general side elevation of the structure portraying the current invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary perspective view of the new apparatus in unlatched condition;

Figure 3 is a partial, longitudinal, vertical section through the appliance showing it in hooked or locked relation;

Figure 4 is an enlarged, small cross-section on line 4-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 presents a diagrammatic view of the fluid control system;

Figure 6 illustrates the valve shown in Figure 5 controlled by the operator; and

2 Figure 7 depicts in section the hydraulic cylinder and piston means employed to perform the unlatching operation.

As illustrated in these drawings, the tractorshovel includes a suitable tractor (Figure 1) driven by the usual internal-combustion engine, not shown, such appliance having an appropriate seat l2 and its back l3 for the operator of the vehicle.

At It on such tractor, the rear end of an appropriate boom I5 is fulcrumed, the forward end of such boom being hinged at It to a duplex frame member I! on which the bucket or shovel I8 is hinged at I! (Figs'l and 3).

Fixedly mounted on, as by welding or differently, and projecting rearwardly from the back wall of the shovel is a pair of spaced-apart loops 2|, 2| (Figs. 2 and 3) cooperating with a pair of companion or complementary, forwardly extending hooks 22, 22 rockingly mounted at 23, 23 in brackets 2|, 24 welded on, or otherwise fixedly secured on, a transverse bar 25 forming part of the dual member I! hinged on the boom l5 at l6.

Each such hook at its end is joined to a crossshaft 26 by its own link 21 (Figure 2) rockingly mounted on the hook at 28 and connected to the shaft by a bifurcated arm 29 fixed on the shaft so that turning of the latter on its axis in its suitably supported bearings 3|, 3| on the member I! actuates the hooks simultaneously.

Near, or at, its center-point shaft 26 has fixed thereon an outstanding arm 32 connected at its free end to a terminal portion of a coiled-spring 33 attached at its opposite end to the bar 25, such spring obviously tending to lower the two hooks 22, 22 simultaneously into their operative engagement position with the pair of shovel or bucket loops 2|, 2| through the action of shaft 26 and the links 21, 21.

As indicated in Figures 2 and 3, one end of shaft 26 has rigidly mounted thereon an operating arm 34 by means of which the shaft may be turned to release or lift the two hooks from the shovel to allow the latter under the action of its own weight and that of its load to swing downwardly automatically on its hinge l9 and thus discharge'or dump its load.

Frame carrying several of the various elements referred to above and which is hinged on the boom l5 at It, and which has the shovel hinged on itself, is maintained at all times in suitable and proper position by a pair of parallel links 35, 35 hinged to the part I! in registration at 36, and hinged at their other ends in alignment on the tractor at 31 (Figure 1).

Boom l5, its shovel Hi, the frame I1, and the parts associated with the latter (Figure 1) are raised and lowered by a combined main hydraulic-cylinder 4|, its piston (not shown) and its piston-rod 42 hinged on the tractor at 43.

3 or by two such hydraulic-means if a dual or duplex boom is employed, such piston-rod or piston-rods, if two are used. being operatively.

connected to its boom at 44 through a novel linkmeans constituting the subject matter of my copendlng patent application Serial No. 715,871, filed December 12, 1946, now Patent No. 2,444,- 692 granted July 6, 1948.

This main hydraulic-means is double-acting and the oil for operating it comes from a supplytank 45 (Figure by a pump 48, a manually operated valve 41 and conduit connections 48 and 49 (Figs. 1 and 5) to the two ends of the cylinder 4|, the pump being connected to the tank and valve by conduits. 5| and 52 and the tank being directly connected to valve 41 by another conduit 53.

As is customary in constructions of this character, the pump is always working as long as the tractor-engine is in operation, and when the hydraulic-means is not doing any work the pump merely idles and circulates the oil from the tank back through the connection 53 to the tank, this general arrangement being well known in the art and hence needing no further description.

A supplemental manually operated valve 6|, as shown in Figures 1, 5 and 6, is connected by a flexible conduit 62 to the interior of one end of a main cylinder 4| out beyond its piston and is also joined by another tube 63 to the oil supply-tank 45.

In addition, the valve has a fiexible conduit 64 (Figs. 5 and 7) connected to an auxiliary cylinder 65 housing an ordinary piston 66, the piston-rod 61 of which has a bifurcated end 68 rockingly connected at 69 to the end of arm 34 on shaft 26, such cylinder 65 being rockingly mounted at 1| on member IT.

The operation of this novel shovel releasing mechanism is as follows:

Whenever it is necessary or desirable to dump the load in the shovel the latter is off the ground having been elevated therefrom by the oilpressure in cylinder 4| which has been built up by the operators control of valve 41.

This oil under suitable pressure is utilized to release the bucket hooks by tapping some of the oil off from the lower portion of cylinder 4| through the conduit 62 and this is performed by the operator pushing down on handle 60 of valve 6|, which slides its plunger 12 down against the action of its coiled spring 13 to cause its circular cavity 14 on valve stem 12 to register with the ports connecting with the conduits 62 and 64, thus supplying oil through the latter conduit 54 to the interior of auxiliary cylinder 65 forcing its piston 66 along the cylinder and causing a rocking of arm 34 producing an upward movement of arms 29 on shaft 26 and through their links 21 elevating and releasing the hooks 22, 22 from their loops 2|, 2| thus freeing the shovel and allowing it to automatically rock down and deliver its load from a suitable position, as shown in dotted lines in Figure 1.

As soon as this has been accomplished, the operator releases handle 50 and the valve 12 automatically rises under the expanding action of spring 13 so that the annular chamber 14 closes its connection with conduit 62 and establishes its connection with conduits 84 and 63 back to the supply-tank.

Promptly upon the oil-pressure in cylinder 65 being thus released, spring 33 gradually rocks shaft 20 back to its original position bringing the hooks into such place that they will automatically engage their loops 2| as soon as the shovel is rocked back on its hinge to load-retaining position, as for instance, when the shovel engages the ground.

This action of spring 22 in rocking shaft 20 automatically through arm 14 pushes piston 00 back to its initial position and in so doing forces the oil, or at. least a substantial portion of it, back through conduit 84, valve 8|, and connection 63 to the supply-tank but readily returning again, when. needed, by the depression of handle by the operator.

The advantages of this particular system are quite obvious and produce more efllcient action through accessibility and reduction of effort on the part of the operator.

In this connection, it may be noted that the amount of oil tapped off from the main-cylinder 4| to unlatch the hooks is so small in comparison with the displacement of the main-cylinder that the slight descent of the mechanism or reduced speed of elevation caused by this is practically negligible.

Whereas this construction has been described in detail, it should be understood that the invention is not necessarily limited and restricted to the precise details of the appliance and that various modifications may be availed of without departure from the heart and essence of the invention, as defined by the dependent claim, and without the loss or sacrifice of any of its material benefits and advantages.

I claim:

In a tractor-shovel having a lifting and lowering mechanism on which the shovel is rockingly mounted, a main hydraulic-means to operate said lifting and lowering mechanism including a fluid supply-tank, a pump. piping and a main power-cylinder and its piston, a latch releasably locking said shovel against dumping its load, and means to restore said latch automatically to locking position after having been released, the novel improvement of a latch-operating hydraulic-means to release said shovel-latch, means to feed fluid under pressure from said cylinder of said main hydraulic-means to said latch-operating auxiliary hydraulic-means and to convey it therefrom, and a manually controlled valve to govern the feed of said fluid to and from said latch auxiliary hydraulic-means and its return to said supply-tank, whereby upon reverse of said valve to its discharge condition said latch-restoration means forces the fluid from said latch auxiliary hydraulic-means.

RALPH L. BEYERSTEDT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,088,986 Alexander Aug. 3, 1937 2,201,189 Makaroif et al May 21, 1940 2,242,860 Huelle May 20, 1941 2,303,852 Linn Dec. 1, 1942 2,412,323 Conrad Dec. 10, 1946 2,416,893 Barker Mar. 4, 194"! 2,426,544 Wooldridge Aug. 26, 194'! 

